Do You Hate Me?
Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add.
Response to reviews at the bottom, be sure to read the A/N's.
Chapter 3 – New Discoveries: (Revised)
The moment the pink-haired girl with a Konoha head protector tied as a headband atop her head walked past the ANBU guards and stepped inside his room she almost regretted it. Conflicting emotions battled each other for dominance of her body. On the one hand she wanted to run out the room and forget all about him and on the other hand she wanted to run over to him and embrace so he would never leave again. In the end she decided she wouldn't do either. Walking in the almost blindingly white room she looked at the person she loved. He lay there breathing shallowly with occasional spasms flitting across his pale face and his bangs were plastered on his forehead due to excessive sweating. It looked as if he was fighting some internal struggle but then she realized she wouldn't ever know. If anything the person she loved was cold, calculating and introspective.
Raising her hand over his face to gently wipe his black hair off his sweaty forehead, she gazed around in the room finding it to fit almost perfectly with the person now residing on the hospital bed. Perfectly white sheets, curtains and walls. Everything was so bare and unreal, it only served one purpose. Yes, one purpose... He said it himself, nothing else mattered but power and to kill that one man. She sat down on a stool beside his bed and started fiddling with her fingers. Sitting there in the eerie silence, broken randomly by his shallow breaths, she allowed herself to truly think about the past events. Yesterday she didn't even allow herself to think, she was so overcome by emotions by seeing the one she loved broken and battered that she didn't pay any heed to her surroundings and acted pure on instinct. She only wanted to stay with him from now on and never let him go. Only when her sensei Kakashi showed up and put her under some kind of sleeping jutsu did she leave his side.
It was Naruto that brought him back to her, he had kept his promise. As usual she was left behind. A useless Kunoichi. (1) She knew he had tried so hard but didn't even acknowledge him. She also knew some of his temporary teammates had suffered horrendous injuries but yesterday she didn't even care. A sob escaped from her mouth and she closed her eyes, trying without success to stop the tears from streaming down her face.
With her inner self cheering her on she stood up and brushed the tears impatiently away. Sakura had always loved Sasuke, she knew he would never love her the way she had or would ever try but she never expected for her to start doing the same. Filled with a newfound resolve she walked out of the room and ignored her sensei as he said hello to her. She had other things to do, things that Sakura would never focus on just a short while ago. There was no more time for chit-chat and Sakura never noticed the clenching and unclenching of Sasuke's hands as she left him.
After watching Sakura ignoring his hello when she exited Sasuke's hospital room and disappear out of sight when she turned right at the end of the long hallway, Kakashi shook his head and sighed. 'Sasuke you'll never understand the true depth of the consequences from the decision you took when you tried to get to Orochimaru. It wasn't worth it, I hope someday you'll understand that at least.' Kakashi thought. Scratching his spiky silver hair, the Jounin poofed out of the hospital.
Naruto feeling happier than he had done in a long while ran towards a destination scribbled on a small piece of paper. He was going to see Gaara; he understood what Naruto had been through and maybe they could help each other. Gaara still creeped Naruto out with his weird dark rimmed azure blue eyes and scruffy red hair though. 'I wonder if he has really changed... I know! If there's one thing that will loosen him up it's my favorite food in the world! RAMEN!' He shouted out in his thoughts and put his trademark grin on his face.
Turning around a corner he saw the house where the Sand-nin trio now lived. He noticed that it looked, well it looked like a big mansion, not one to rival the Hyuga mansion of course but it was big nonetheless. It was a three storey building, painted in varying shades of brown. It was surrounded by large round wooden beams that held up the balconies of the first and second floor. The house was topped by a large dome that reflected the beams the sun shot at the world and around the house were several small patches of flowers and trees in a large front and back garden. In all it created a calm and serene atmosphere. That is until that atmosphere was brutally dispelled when a young man was thrown through one of the huge windows on the ground floor. Impacting the ground harshly he rolled and tumbled towards Naruto. The blue eyed boy merely raised an eyebrow and looked at the groaning figure. "Oi, fatass what did you do?"
The figure had some weird black stripes on his face and his eyelids hid his beetle like black eyes. He wore baggy black pants with a large pocket on the left side and a baggy black sweater with a hood that covered his hair. For some reason he had a large bandage covered package on his back from which a bit of spiky black hair escaped at the top. The figure stood up with a grunt and started swaying dangerously. He looked at Naruto, who had insulted him, with slightly crossed eyes. "My name is Kankuro! When I get my hands on the three of you I'm gonna kill you!" The figure slurred and promptly fell back down, unconscious before he even hit the dirt.
Naruto looked back at the house and saw a young woman shrieking insults through the now broken window. "Ah, you pissed off your sister didn't you?" He commented dryly. "Still the same make-up wearing, doll playing freak as ever..."
Naruto jumped up when he heard someone behind his back. "Please don't insult my brother, he's just an idiot."
Naruto turned around and scratched the back of his nervously. "Ah, uh, hiya Gaara. It's been a while huh? We didn't get to talk much yesterday. Hehehe..."
Gaara wore a black netted shirt shown underneath the front opening of a red do-gi tied with a black waistband around his middle. (2) Black baggy pants covered his legs and brown sandals with three chained straps graced his feet. "Yes." Was all that Naruto received as a response as Gaara grabbed his brother by the back of his shirt with one arm and carried him towards the house. Naruto hesitated for a few moments, noting the lack of the gourd Gaara usually carried around on his back with him, and then unsure of what to do he ran after them.
"So uh, what are you guys doing here?" Asked Naruto.
"We'll talk more when we're inside." The redhead responded.
Naruto wisely shut his mouth and followed Gaara through a heavy oak door into the cool shade the house offered. As they passed through the hallway and stepped in the living room, Naruto looked around and was surprised to see there was hardly any furniture at all. A small table in the middle of the room and two leather clad sofas; a two-seater and a three-seater. Along the walls were two small wooden cabinets. While the house looked inviting from the outside it was nearly gloomy on the inside. 'Naruto you idiot they just moved in, what do you expect?' He thought and nodded to himself. After Gaara dropped Kankuro behind one of the couches they seated themselves on the sofas. Naruto then slapped his hands on his knees and turned over to Gaara. "So..."
Gaara turned his head to look at the blonde boy and started explaining why they were here. "As you know the village of the Hidden Sand was misled by Orochimaru. He killed my 'father' and ordered us to attack the Hidden Leaf along with the Hidden Sound. We were beaten of course and the Hidden Sand offered its surrender to the Hidden Leaf. As a sign of... Goodwill... The Hidden Sand has sent four teams of Shinobi to help the Hidden Leaf to protect itself from any potential threat and of course to complete missions on behalf of the Hidden Leaf. One team of Jounin level Shinobi's, two teams of Chuunins and one team of Genin. I demanded to go and so I was sent here with my brother and sister as the Genin team. We have been instructed to stay at least five years."
Naruto's eyes boggled at that. "F-five years?!" He sputtered and flailed his arms around. "But won't you miss your own village?"
Gaara stared at Naruto again and shook his head. "No, there is nothing for me there, neither for my siblings. Besides, I owe the Leaf a large debt."
As if waiting for this cue his sister Temari entered the room. She had emerald green eyes, sandy-blonde hair and had a total of four pigtails all bound tightly with red hair bands, two on the top and two on the lower back of her head. She was dressed in loose fitting long-sleeved white shirt with a low cut in the front, showing a black netted top. She wore a white gray knee length skirt which was more like a suede towel wrapped around her hips and had a strange netted garment that covered her upper left leg and her right calf. Her feet were in black open sandals with two straps. On her back was an extremely oversized fan which she deposited on the side of the sofa Gaara sat on and moved to sit beside the red-haired Genin. "Yes, even though Gaara has now changed... Thanks to you," she said and offered a small smile to Naruto. "Gaara has still not been accepted by the village as a normal person. You can even say it has even gotten worse. According to them we brought shame on the Sand for failing our mission, had we succeeded there would be no Hidden Leaf and we never had to surrender in the first place. We have dented the village's honor"
Naruto gaped at the two of them as though not believing that could happen. Temari quickly continued on. "We might miss the Hidden Sand but from what we've experienced the Hidden Leaf can't be that bad."
The blond boy jumped up suddenly and punched his fists in the air, startling Temari while Gaara just silently looked at him. "That's right! Let me take you to my favorite spot in the whole village, I'm sure you'll like it!"
Things were troublesome, it was the only way Shikamaru could describe it. Yawning excessively he got up out of his bed and scratched himself behind his left ear. His room would not excite many people but it was a place where he could relax and think about things. On his desk, which stood in front of a window, were several pieces of paper. All of them filled with various scribbles and doodles. He might not look like it but Shikamaru was an avid poet, well that is what it was normally called. Shikamaru called it being a writer of 'stuff'. He looked up at his ceiling which had been painted in seemingly random lines and figures. Shikamaru liked his ceiling; it was what he would look at when he couldn't be bothered to go outside to gaze at the clouds. He always liked to try and see hidden patterns and pictures in the mess of paint. He was also an avid Shogi and Go player, along with a number of other strategic games. On top of several tables in his room lay the boards for the games he liked to play; there was even one with an unfinished game between him and his best friend Chouji.
"Chouji..." Shikamaru muttered. "You dumbass why did you take that last pill, all the woman of Konoha will be after you now." He might have said Chouji would die, and he would have if his fight had taken any longer. But all that was wrong with him now was exhaustion. "Pfff. He'll probably eat so much junk food as fast as he can to regain his fat anyway."
After whining as he usually did he stepped inside the bathroom that was linked to his own bedroom and stared in the mirror. His hair was dangling down his face and his eyes were barely open. "Ugh I should have stayed in bed longer." He said to his reflection. With half a mind to do just that he decided that he'd just fix himself up and go downstairs. His mother would probably nag him to go outside and visit the hospital like a good little Shinobi. He sighed and opened the water faucet above the sink and cupped his hands to catch some of the water that was shooting out. He splashed it in his face and rubbed vigorously. After grabbing his thick black hair he pulled it in a spiky ponytail on the top of his head and bound it with a simple black string. Stepping outside of the bathroom he proceeded towards his closet and pulled out a simple outfit; a white t-shirt with a non-descript symbol on the front, black pants with pockets on the side and his normal heavy black boots. He picked up his Chuunin flak jacket that was hung over one of the chairs in his room and put it on. His teammate Ino teased him about it mercilessly. Inwardly though, he was quite proud of being the only one made Chuunin. Of course he would never tell anyone that.
No sooner when he finished dressing he heard his mother yelling through the door. "Shikamaru! Get up this instant and eat the food I made for you! It's past noon already; you need to visit your friends!"
"Yeah, yeah." He muttered grumpily.
"One yeah is enough!" His mother scolded him after hearing him with a sense of hearing only mothers seemed to posses and stomped down a set of stairs.
"How troublesome... I should have stayed in bed..."
(1): Kunoichi, a female Shinobi.
(2): Do-gi, it's a piece of garment for the upper body. I trust you all know what a judo or karate outfit looks like? Just picture the 'shirt' of that.
A/N: Well for some reason I think this is a pretty good chapter. I hope you all like it, I started describing the surroundings a bit more and what the characters look like. If you all like it I think I'll go back to the first two chapters and edit those to include this kind of information.
Anyway, I made up on what Shikamaru's room looks like. I think I did a pretty decent job, I just added some random stuff that seems likely for him. Oh and that 'yeah, yeah' bit is from the manga, for some reason is seems like the thing that would happen lots of times in his house.
If it's going to slow for you readers I'm really sorry, but I wanted to take my time to explain more about the characters and I hope I did a good job so far.
Ok and I think it's about time I responded to my dear reviewers, thank you all. Your reviews really make my day and make me try harder. On to the response!
Hexgar: Thanks! I doubt Ino would take the place of Naruto's significant other. She seems more fitting for Shikamaru; they just perfectly offset each other. He won't even be rid of nagging away from his mother! :P
hyper yo yo boy: I like stories that take place after this mission as well, it's always nice to see how different certain writers seem to view things and how they let it all turn out. Hopefully I'll do a good job. Thanks for the review!
Jezabelzebub: Thank you for the compliments. I think I'll be leaning towards Temari as well, but who knows where this story might take me. Could you give me a link towards that fic? I sent you an email and I'm eagerly awaiting your reply.
Tessa Shelton: Yeah I'm sorry about the shortness of the chapters, but hopefully I'll update soon enough for you guys so you won't have to wait too long. :) Like I said I want an unusual pairing for Naruto so that won't be Hinata or Sakura, for the other characters I don't really care as much. Thanks for the review!
Anon-entity: Awww, shucks, you really mean it? Thanks, your review really made my day! :D
Eadha Ohn: Hehe, yeah. Tsunade is really tough and all but I wanted to let her have a bit more of a special relation with Naruto. After all, how can you not like him?! Thanks for the review!
panuru4u: Thank you very much. Well you might be on to something although it's still a contest between the two 'older' ladies. Naruto, what a charmer eh? ;)
hinanaru: Have no fear! Even though some parts might be depressing I'll try to balance it out with measured amounts of fluff, romance and action. Thanks for the review!
Kisu: Yeah, Naruto doesn't deserve all that hostility. Sadly the older villagers are clinging to their foolish grudges and nothing that other can do or say will make them change their minds. But as long as he has his precious persons... Thanks for the review!
Gopu: Thanks! :)
Loki: Thanks for the kind words. I already sent an email to someone else and I'll see how that turns out. Do you have an ICQ number? Maybe we can chat for a bit about this. I've read another fic with a Naruto/Temari pairing. It's awesome but it hasn't been updated for a month and I hope it's not dead. It is located here at a Temari shrine: sayuri.us/temari/ (just a http link)
Well that's it; all of you please keep reading and don't forget to review!